Cambria Celebrates Purchase of 417-Acre Ranch for Preservation

Residents of this Central Coast community of about 6,000 held hands Friday along the mile-long trail their fund-raising--and state parks bond money--has preserved forever.

The $11.1-million purchase of the 417-acre East-West Ranch is one of the first major land buys made possible by Proposition 12, a $2.1-billion parks bond California voters approved in March, said state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo).

“I’m looking out here right now, and I’m seeing sea otters and seals and waves crashing,” O’Connell said just before a ceremony celebrating the purchase, made final Thursday. “It’s a spectacular piece of property, and it will be protected in perpetuity. It’s just the right thing to do.”

The bond contributed $3.5 million of the purchase price, but Cambria residents brought in more than $1 million through a shower of fund-raisers, from walk-runs to rummage sales to dinners to swing-dance parties.

“It’s become kind of the social entertainment in this town,” said Peggy Christianson, a Cambria resident who coordinated many of the events.

Despite all the work, townspeople were falling short of raising the required $2 million in private donations until Mid-State Bank gave up about 20 acres on which it had planned to build a shopping center.

The bank’s donation was a “buzzer shot” giving fund-raisers what they needed to free up $7 million in grants from the State Coastal Conservancy, said Glen Williams, vice president of the American Land Conservancy, which led the drive to buy the ranch.

Stanley Young, spokesman for the state Resources Agency, said that efforts using Proposition 12’s “challenge grants” are going on across California but that the East-West Ranch is particularly valuable environmentally, recreationally and historically.

“This is exactly the kind of thing Proposition 12 was designed for. It hits home runs in many areas,” Young said.

The property, which stretches about a mile along the Central Coast and includes part of Santa Rosa Creek, contains habitat important to endangered and threatened species, including tidewater gobies, steelhead trout, red-legged frogs and Monterey pines.

The previous owners of the land, the Fiscalini family, trace their history back to the Swiss-Italian immigrants who settled in the area and established dairies, Williams said. And Chumash Indians depended on the land for hundreds of years before that, he added.

Many Cambria residents are familiar with the East-West Ranch from hiking its bluff trail, which offers spectacular vistas and views of otters, hawks, dolphins and whales, Christianson said. With houses to the north and south and the town center to the east, she added, the property could serve as a hub of trails connecting residents.

Christianson said residents also are looking forward to construction of a park with ball fields and other amenities on about 30 acres of ranchland east of Pacific Coast Highway.

“But the thrilling part of it is over 400 acres of pristine wilderness,” she said. “I really feel like we’re the little town that could.”